3 Mobys

Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Jake Heggie's trivial "Moby-Dick" proved popular when it reached San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera this year. But there were other operatic Mobys. At REDCAT, Rinde Eckert revived his poignant one-man music theater piece, "And God Created Great Whales," about a composer's loss of memory. In Mannheim, Germany, the provocative Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth premiered her startlingly feminist "The Outcast," inspired by Melville, David Lynch and "Colombo," and with a libretto by the noir writer Barry Gifford. Call me Ishmaela.

Jake Heggie's trivial "Moby-Dick" proved popular when it reached San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera this year. But there were other operatic Mobys. At REDCAT, Rinde Eckert revived his poignant one-man music theater piece, "And God Created Great Whales," about a composer's loss of memory. In Mannheim, Germany, the provocative Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth premiered her startlingly feminist "The Outcast," inspired by Melville, David Lynch and "Colombo," and with a libretto by the noir writer Barry Gifford. Call me Ishmaela. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Jake Heggie's trivial "Moby-Dick" proved popular when it reached San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera this year. But there were other operatic Mobys. At REDCAT, Rinde Eckert revived his poignant one-man music theater piece, "And God Created Great Whales," about a composer's loss of memory. In Mannheim, Germany, the provocative Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth premiered her startlingly feminist "The Outcast," inspired by Melville, David Lynch and "Colombo," and with a libretto by the noir writer Barry Gifford. Call me Ishmaela.